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Management Information Systems: Undergraduate Programs

Overview:

The four year undergraduate degree in MIS prepares students for professional careers in Information Systems through balancing instruction in theory with courses in technical application and organization/behavioral knowledge. Rapid advances in technology, intense international competition, faster production life cycles, and more complex and specialized markets demand that students must receive training that will prepare them to analyze organizations, technology, and user requirements rapidly and thoroughly. Graduates who combine analytical and communication skills with technical knowledge and business knowledge are in high demand. Our courses seek to develop and foster these competencies.

The MIS undergraduate major consists of 4 required courses and 2 elective courses in addition to the required classes for all Eller College of Management undergraduate students.

Our MIS major plan of study is designed to give students knowledge and proficiency in:

business areas such as situational analysis, problem solving, teamwork, and communication

other business areas such as operations, finance and marketing

Expected Learning Outcomes:

The MIS faculty assess the learning outcomes for the MIS undergraduate major in a variety of ways. While many outcomes are measured through specific exam questions, other measurement activities include course projects, lab assignments, case studies and presentations.

Learning Outcomes

Understand and apply core knowledge of programming, networking, databases, and system design

Identify and analyze requirements for information systems

Understand and apply design principles in Information Systems

Understand and apply programming & development principles in information systems

Effectively solve problems in an MIS context

Effectively communicate to both business and IT professionals

At a program level, we anticipate that achieving the learning outcomes can be measured through their obtaining gainful employment.

Assessment Activities:

Major courses have a defined set of learning objectives (see attachment on this page, “Undergraduate course-level outcomes”), which are mapped to student learning outcomes at the program level. Instructors in each of the courses where outcome data is collected, will design course assessment (e.g., examination questions and labs) so that there will be at least one question (more at the discretion of the instructor) for each for the SLOs in that course assessment instance (e.g., a final exam). The exception is with placement, where the department gathers self-reported employment statistics for the program.

Assessment Findings:

During Fall 2012, we began data collection for the first course in the cohort sequence (i.e., MIS 331). The course assessment was structured to specifically capture data for the SLOs measured in this course. Data for each outcome was captured from one or more exam questions. Scores in the relevant questions were separately measured. Subsequently, data was gathered for MIS 307.

The goal is to continue collection of data in subsequent courses. This will allow us to obtain multiple data points for each student learning outcome as well as obtain longitudinally comparable data points.

A summary of outcome satisfaction based on collected data follows. As additional data becomes available, understanding of student learning outcome satisfaction will improve. Overall, the data collected shows students are satisfactorily achieving measured learning outcomes. If this pattern changes, it will trigger a review of the outcome at the MIS undergraduate committee level.

We have begun collecting data on learning outcomes, and changes in response to assessment findings are expected to be made in the future. Thresholds are in place to measure satisfactory vs. unsatisfactory outcome performance.

Falling below the threshold serves as a feedback mechanism, i.e., an examination by the undergraduate committee of why an outcome was not met. For example, the committee will need to determine whether or not courses sufficiently addressed an outcome, or if students need additional training in specific learning areas. If the outcome itself is in need of revision or change, the committee will determine the revised or new outcome.

Measuring student performance on learning outcomes allows us to see if our students are performing at the level expected of a top-tier program. If students have been consistently meeting learning outcome standards over a period of time, then the undergraduate committee will also consider whether raising the expectations for students (as measured by a “satisfactory” learning outcome) is opportune. Assessment findings are also expected to provide us with a measure of student learning that can be compared with best practices in MIS, and if necessary a yardstick to compare against peer institutions.

The undergraduate committee will review student learning outcomes once a year, to examine their currency and usefulness. The committee will also review data collection for each measure. This will ensure that the curriculum stays current with the changing needs of the field of Information Systems.